State Structures and Economic Modernization

Abstract

This chapter examines institutional structures and a comparative assessment of national and subnational fiscal systems in a bid to gauge policy effectiveness around redistribution and stabilization in Africa. The social, political, and economic ramifications are expected to offer a glimpse into the policy innovation imperative of the dichotomy between decentralized governance and centralized fiscal architecture. If the gains from regional innovation ecosystems are to be maximized, political economy nuances around state structures, fiscal regimes, executive-legislative financial autonomies, and allied matters must be appropriately situated. While most of the countries in Africa are unitary states—with all the powers of government vested in the central government—only Ethiopia and Nigeria are fully federal, with some features of federalism present in countries like South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The discussion concludes that constitutional dynamics—whether in unitary or federal systems—are complex.